


don't want to miss a single thing you do tonight

by thekaidonovskys



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-27
Updated: 2014-07-27
Packaged: 2018-02-10 15:22:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2030115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thekaidonovskys/pseuds/thekaidonovskys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The floor is quiet and empty, the usual occupants off to slumber. But there are some inside who don’t have that luxury - some who are about to embark on the night shift.</p>
            </blockquote>





	don't want to miss a single thing you do tonight

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted by Tumblr user thekaidonovskys

It’s 10pm in the Hong Kong Shatterdome.

It’s a quiet night. No Kaiju, no incidents. Just a normal night - but night itself is not a normal time. The Shatterdome is a different world at night; not just the building, but the people themselves. 

Let’s take a look. 

We start on the factory floor. The hustle and bustle of the day is long gone, died down to just a few people finishing up for the night. There’s no security, per se, because the ‘dome itself is locked down tight as can be, and it’s pretty well presumed that nobody on the inside wants to cause any harm. Besides, there are cameras everywhere. If so much as a spanner is out of place in the morning, they’ll be able to find the culprit.

So the last of the technicians, as they put away their tools and shut down their computers, depart for their beds. They’ve worked a full day in repairs, technology upgrades and general maintenance. They deserve their sleep more than just about anybody. 

That just leaves the four immense Jaegers, standing in their docks.  _Crimson Typhoon, Cherno Alpha, Striker Eureka_ and  _Gipsy Danger_  - powered down but always awake, always ready to launch as soon as their drivers activate them. Three are shiny and clean; one is a little scuffed still, called out to battle yesterday afternoon, but that’ll be fixed soon. They stand tall and proud, as if standing guard even when inactive. As if guarding those inside. 

The floor is quiet and empty, the usual occupants off to slumber. But there are some inside who don’t have that luxury - some who are about to embark on the night shift. 

Into the ‘dome we go. 

There are few lights, apart from the emergency lighting through all the corridors. The training rooms are dark and empty, the last one exited just half an hour prior. The dining room is silent, the communal lounges vacant, the hallways unoccupied. 

Walking down the corridors that house the sleeping quarters, there’s the occasional murmur of noise, a few faint strips of light shining out from under doors. Those slowly fade away, too, giving way to the darkness of night and the stillness of sleep. 

Let’s slip behind a few doors, shall we?

Into the Wei Tang apartments. One communal living area, three bedrooms. All quiet, all silent. If one were to look closely, they might notice that the three brothers, in their individual beds, are sleeping in a remarkably similar pattern, indicative of a shared dream. A normal event, it seems, but not one that is discussed very much outside of these doors. 

Across the hall, Chuck Hansen is just stepping out of his shower. He’s the one who was training late, and now that the adrenaline has left his system, he can crash nice and hard. He’s in bed and asleep within minutes.

His father’s room, next door but not connected, is empty. We’ll look for him later.

Two rooms along, the Kaidonovskys are still awake. Aleksis is putting away mugs, while Sasha reads aloud from a Russian novel. There’s an air of simplicity, of domesticity, but also a sense of tiredness. They’re the ones who were called out yesterday to fight, and today has been their day to recover. It won’t be long before they too go to bed. 

Mako Mori has been asleep for some time - but she’s a morning person. Long before many others will even consider rising, she’ll be tinkering away at one of her projects, or out on the floor preparing some modifications for  _Gipsy Danger_. The Jaeger that she hopes one day to pilot. Perhaps she’s dreaming of it now. 

There are the pilots. The fighters. The heroes. All tucked away for a good night’s rest, ready for whatever the new day may bring. 

Who else?

The next corridor, the only one between pilot quarters and the tech sleeping floor, has three occupied rooms, and many that are now empty. This was once the science floor, but now only two scientists live here. Along with them is the ‘misfit’; not quite a pilot, more than a technician. 

The three rooms are occupied, but tonight they are empty. More than likely they are to stay empty for many hours yet. 

There’s a click from the other corridor, and the Kaidonovsky lights go out. The quiet and stillness of the sleeping quarters floor is complete - all are in bed, preparing for a new day. Now there are just five people who are yet to sleep.

Let’s go find them, shall we?

We’ll go up, first, right to the top, both metaphorically and physically. Stacker Pentacost, up in his office, is still at his desk. He’s rubbing his eyes, the long day clearly having taken a toll on him, but he still persists at his work. There’s toxicology reports from yesterday’s Kaiju attack - he has to report exactly how the Kaiju was killed, the analysis of the blood and other fluids that may now be in the water or on land, and check the path that  _Cherno Alpha_ took back to the Shatterdome to ensure that no traces of Kaiju have returned with them. He’s also got a new batch of pilots to recruit and begin training, as well as a sudden unexpected maintenance issue with  _Striker Eureka_ that he has to locate parts for.

He’s a busy man.

But he’s also a tired man, and ten minutes later when there’s a knock at his door, it seems to be welcome. “Enter,” he calls, looking up, and some of the tension eases from his shoulders as he sees his visitor. “You should be sleeping,” he admonishes lightly. 

And now we’ve found Herc Hansen, who closes the door behind himself and rolls his eyes. “Pot calling the kettle black,” he says. “Besides, I knew you’d still be at it. Call it a night, Stacker. Paperwork’ll still be there in the morning, and you can’t do a lot without the reports from K-Science anyway.”

Stacker puts up a token protest, but it’s always been Herc who’s been able to get him to take a break. The last we see of them, they’re moving over to the couches in the corner of the office, something suspiciously similar to a whisky bottle in Herc’s hand, and a little bit less strain on Stacker’s face. 

We’ll leave them to it. They deserve their chance to unwind, and what they do to relax is nobody’s business but theirs. 

Only two more places where work is still underway. So off we go to our aforementioned misfit - Tendo Choi, elbows deep in his screens as he manipulates images of  _Cherno Alpha_. The rest of his team are long gone, off to bed, but he stays on. Tendo’s a bit of an insomniac - though his excuse is that he doesn’t want to be too far away from the radar - but he looks more tired than usual today. But of course;  _Cherno Alpha_ got in late last night, and he almost certainly stayed up nearly the whole night making sure everything was okay, then worked the day as well. He needs a reason to leave his screens and get some rest. 

His source of salvation comes in the form of someone we didn’t realize was awake - one of the techs we saw leaving the floor earlier, headed up to Control instead of to his bed. He knocks quietly at the door, and Tendo’s smile is soft when he sees him. “Didn’t I tell you the roster’s paused in the aftermath of an attack?” he asks. “It hasn’t been three days yet.”

“You look tired, though,” the man says. “Thought I might help you get some sleep.”

“Wear me out, you mean,” Tendo says with a chuckle, and nods towards his passkey. “Go on then, go warm up the bed. I’ll be there soon.”

The man leaves and Tendo, now looking far less tired (and a little younger, too), only takes a few more minutes to finish up his work before he shuts off the screens and the lights. Then he’s off, to what people affectionately refer to as his  _den of pleasure,_ but is really just another place to unwind and connect. 

We won’t follow him either. 

And now that just leaves the final two empty beds - the science division. As we go down to the labs, we can hear them before we see them, but out of deference to the late hour, their bickering is muted and a lot calmer.

At least we presume that’s due to the hour. Perhaps it’s also due to the lack of watchful eyes.

Here they are - Hermann Gottlieb and Newton Geiszler. Deep at work, and showing no signs of relenting, their lab looks exactly as it did ten hours ago, in the middle of the day. And it’s likely to look this way for another ten hours too. 

This is the true night shift of the Shatterdome. The couch is in the corner of the room for a reason; in the aftermath of an attack, they’re both far too busy to think of getting anything near normal amounts of sleep. There’s too much to learn, too many new Kaiju parts and numbers and people needing to know what they’re up against and how much of a chance they have. It’s the work of ten men, and these two somehow manage it. 

Tonight they’ve got a lot to do, and there’s nobody sweeping in to drag them off to bed. They are the only ones who could ever get one another to sleep, and they both know that they can’t afford that right now. So they talk - bicker - and keep each other alert and share findings. 

And that’s simply how the night goes. There are no windows, no signs that the rest of the building outside their door is fast asleep, and only a few longing glances towards the couch. They don’t have a time that someone will take over from them, or an hour to sign off for the night. It’s work until the job is done, snatch a few hours of sleep, then get back to it. 

They take one break, Newt making coffee and convincing Hermann to drink it on the couch with him. They sit in silence, knees almost touching but not quite, and don’t look at one another. To anybody else, it would seem like a tense truce, that neither really  _wants_ to be here but is simply tolerating it for the other. 

But silence always does speak volumes.

Back to it, after that. Blood samples are tested, calculations are done, Kaiju remains are dissected. Information is collated into data - data to ready the Jaegers for the next invasion, to prepare the public for any epidemic threats, to make predictions, to keep as many people safe as possible. They work hard, harder than many see. 

There are some who see, though. A few hours after his departure from Control, there’s a rumpled Tendo Choi in the doorway, apparently not quite ‘worn out’ just yet. Newt smirks and banters and Tendo returns it and Hermann shakes his head at both of them. But then Tendo wanders over and asks a question about Hermann’s numbers and Hermann launches into an explanation and Newt’s the one shaking his head at them - but fondly. 

Tendo doesn’t last long, though, and starts yawning around two. Half an hour later he’s gone, finally off to bed for some rest, with the promise to check back in on them in the morning. And apparently his yawning has set off Newt, who gives Hermann a bit of a wary glance. “I know I  _shouldn’t_ -“ he begins.

Hermann just waves a hand, rummaging through papers on his desk with the other. “I know you didn’t get any rest last night,” he says. “I at least got a few hours. Go on.”

Newt smiles gratefully - not that Hermann sees it - and makes his way to the couch, removing his jacket and loosening his tie as he does. He toes off his shoes, lies down, and is asleep within moments. 

Hermann stays focused on his work. Any glances in the direction of the couch are simply to ensure that Newt is still breathing, and his expression has softened because the bickering is over and he can hear his own thoughts again. Those are the facts that he swears by. 

The night goes on. The chalk scratches at the board. The Kaiju parts bob gently in their tanks. Newt gets his well-deserved nap, but he’ll only be out for a couple of hours. It’s all he can afford. And Hermann won’t sleep at all until the day breaks.

They can have regular sleep patterns when the world is at peace again. 

When Mako Mori appears in the doorway a couple of hours later, they know that the sun is rising and it’s time for sleep. At least Hermann does - Newt’s just woken and, recharged off his power nap, is probably going to work right through until the night. So, chipper and cheerful, he waves Hermann off to bed and starts up an enthusiastic dialogue with Mako as he scrubs up and gets ready to do some more work. 

As we follow Hermann along the corridor, we see the beginnings of life. A few early birds are off, like Mako, to get a head start on their work. Cheung and Hu are heading to one of the training rooms - Jin, if anybody’s curious, is picking up breakfast, which is already underway. Others are still sleeping, or only just beginning to stir.

When Hermann wakes in a few hours, the Shatterdome will be awake, and the day shift will be underway. For those who slept, there will be no sign that the hours they spent in slumber were used for work by others. They will not question the new facts winging their way out of the building, the new upgrades being prepared, the fact that the latest Kaiju apparently dissected itself.

We watch the hustle of the day, and wonder if perhaps four men - and two in particular - get more work done in one night than the rest can in an entire day. 

**Author's Note:**

> This is rather a different sort of feel for me. I’ve always imagined a Shatterdome where the pilots, when they’re not out fighting, live pretty pampered lifestyles, get a full night’s rest and good food (as good as possible under conditions) and etcetera. And again, when not out fighting, they really don’t have a lot to do. But others do.
> 
> Title from "Hey Soul Sister".


End file.
